Meet Mr. Handwriting Guy

A conversation with Yaakov Rosenthal, Chassidic Jew and leader in teen graphology

Yaakov Rosenthal sees hundreds of teens every year, helping them gain insight into themselves through their handwritings.

They call him Mr.
Handwriting Guy. Every week, Yaakov Rosenthal makes his rounds to a number of
New York High schools, where he sits with students and analyzes their
writing—not the content of their words, but the meaning hidden beneath the way
they form their letters, their margins and even the space between words.

Through unlocking the
emotions and thoughts behind their handwriting, Yaakov helps the teens get in
touch with themselves, their feelings and their environment. Of the 250 teens Yaakov
sees every year, some come for a one-time analysis and some stay with him for
years, as he helps them chart their course to adulthood.

"I offer teens a safe environment where they can be understood and not judged."

MP: Before we
talk about graphology, please tell me a bit about yourself. Today, you’re a chassidic
Jew living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, but you weren’t always this way. Can you share a bit about your life’s
journey, and how you got to where you are today?

Yaakov: I was
born in 1950 in Albany, NY. My great-grandparents had come to the US in the
1870s and 1880s. By the time I was born, we had very little Judaism in our
lives. I knew nothing about it, and whatever I did pick up made no sense to me.

I went to college at Hofstra University in Long Island and
got a degree in psychology. Judaism meant so little to me that I even became a
Quaker for a time. By the time I graduated in 1971, I had saved quite a bit of
money from working between semesters and decided that I was ready to retire.

I started hitchhiking all across North America with nothing
more than a backpack. I learned a lot about life in my travels and had some
amazing experiences. Whenever I needed some more cash, I would work a bit and then
continue on my way.

At one point, I got a ride from just outside Salt Lake City,
Utah, to Wendover, Nevada. For the entire 80 miles of the trip, the driver
spoke to me about Jesus. I was a good hitchhiker and knew to keep my mouth
shut. Finally, just before he was going to drop me off, he asked what my
religion was. I replied that I was Jewish. I was afraid that he would ask me
more information about Judaism, because I really didn’t know much myself. All I
knew were the blessings over bread and wine and nothing else. Fortunately, he
didn’t say another word.

I got out of his car in a daze and got another ride with
some people heading to Yosemite. I didn’t know it at that time, but it was
actually Yom Kippur.

Yaakov's new book shares many practical tips and insights for anyone wishing to improve their relationship with teens.

At Yosemite, I met a backpacker like me. We spent eight days
in the woods. I would later connect the dots and discover that it had been the
holiday of Sukkot.

Anyway, my new friend invited me to come to his house in
Marin County, CA. While there, I read a book on Judaism that opened my eyes.
For the first time in my life, I viewed Judaism as something worth exploring. This
was October of 1971.

By 1974, I was studying in Penn State in State College, PA
and occasionally attending Hillel. One winter Shabbat, a group of six young
people from Crown Heights came to celebrate Shabbat with us. On Friday night,
one of them spoke about how we spend six days a week creating, and then the
seventh day is for us to remember that we ourselves are creations. That
resonated with me.

They came again the next winter as well. Within a few weeks,
my friends and I started celebrating Shabbat together each week. We would all
pitch in to make the food and then celebrate together.

That spring, we went to spend Shavuot in Crown Heights. It
was a mind-blowing experience. I met friends there who are still friends today.

From Brooklyn, I went to meet a friend and backpack in the
Adirondacks. There, I saw some people taking advantage of the woods, chopping
down green wood and dirtying the streams. Here I was carrying raw ingredients
and making sure to leave nothing behind, and they were just destroying the
forest. It was disenchanting. Suddenly, the timeless ideals of Judaism seemed
much more appealing.

I hitchhiked over to Camp Shaloh, a yeshivah program in the
Catskills, and asked to stay for a week. I was probably pretty
disheveled-looking at that point, but they let me stay. When the summer ended,
I went to Crown Heights and began studying in earnest at Hadar HaTorah, a
yeshivah for men who were discovering Judaism as adults.

In 1978, I met my wife, Tzivia Chaya, and we started a
family. That summer, I got my first job as a computer programming analyst,
something I continued to do for a long time. Thank G‑d, our family grew, and we
now have five children and nine grandchildren, and that’s pretty much my story
in a nutshell.

Yaakov and Tzivia Chaya Rosenthal are proud of their five children and nine grandchildren.

MP: Considering
your training in psychology and experience as a programmer, how did you end up in
the field of graphology and become a leading teen graphologist?

Yaakov: I first
learned about the field of graphology from a fellow programmer who was dabbling
in it. I took a forty-week course with the great Felix Klein, known as “the
dean of American graphology,” who subsequently certified me as a graphologist
in 1988. I toured many Chabad houses and community centers and gave presentations
about what I did, and I would read people’s writing.

When my son was learning at the Chabad yeshivah in Monsey, I
gave a talk for the boys about graphology. The administration was impressed
with what I did, and I was asked to do the same in other schools. One thing led
to another, and I was soon coming for weekly sessions with the students in a
number of schools in Brooklyn.

Over the course of time, I’ve learned many things from the
teens I work with, and this became the basis of my book.

"I toured many Chabad houses and community centers and gave presentations about what I did, and I would read people’s writing."

MP: When you look
at a teen’s writing, you can tell a lot about him or her. What advantage does
that give you over a teacher or principal who also knows a lot, if not more,
about the same student?

Yaakov: There are
a number of factors here. True, there are the obvious observations, but there
are also issues that a person may not be conscious of.

Trust is developed through compassion and competence. Within
5 to 10 minutes, I’ve usually accomplished that. So when I see something
showing up in their handwriting, I am able to help them discover themselves and
give them tools to deal with their issue.

Also, I believe that teens often need someone to understand
them, not to fix them. I offer them a safe environment where they can be
understood and not judged.

Most importantly, people—especially teens—are afraid to open
up. When I look at their handwriting and tell them what I see, they are already
opened up since I just told them their secrets. Obviously, I do this very
carefully with a great deal of compassion. But once they trust me and they see
that I already know about the issue at hand, they feel they may as well spill
the beans. This helps them talk about issues at home, bullying, addiction or
whatever else shows up.

"One thing led to another, and I was soon coming for weekly sessions with the students in a number of schools."

MP: What are some
of the most common signs you look for in teen handwriting?

Yaakov: There are
generally twenty separate indicators we look for—as well as hundreds of other
little clues—when analyzing handwriting. In my book, Unlock: The Secret World of
Teenagers, I discuss six basic indicators that are relevant to reading
teens’ writing. Now, I need to point out that no factor can be viewed in
isolation. Rather, when I see a number of clues pointing in one direction, I am
pretty confident that I’m onto something. Also, learning these six factors will
not make you a graphologist. It will just give you some powerful tools to use
when trying to understand a teen.

The first thing I bring up in my book is the margins.
Margins are the blank areas above and on both sides of your writing. Where you
start writing on the page tells me something. Where you end your writing tells
me something else. Together, it reveals a lot about you.

The next factor is how you form your lines when writing on
unlined paper. Teens’ writing often resembles a roller coaster. They are
looking for who they are, and it shows up in their writing.

The book also shows you how to look at how close the words
are, how the writer chooses to cross out rejected words and phrases, and how
the writer forms the lower part of letters that dip below the line.

The sixth factor I discuss is how the writer forms the word
“I.” English is unique in that the personal pronoun is one letter. There are
three basic ways of writing the capital “I”: there is the “box I” with a top
and a bottom, there is the “independent I” with just a line, and then there is
the “palmer I.” The independent I can indicate that the child went to school
out of town at a young age and developed a healthy sense of independence. Or it
could be that he has a problem with his parents and is very angry at them.

Other indicators in the handwriting also help reveal the
person’s personality.

There are three basic ways of writing the capital “I.”

MP: Can you tell
me about some of the things you’ve discovered?

Yaakov: Obviously,
I need to modify some details to protect privacy, but here are some recent examples:

There was a 22-year-old woman who came to me, and I was able
to tell that she had experienced a trauma at age 11 or 12. The problem was that
she honestly could not think of anything that had happened to her during that
period of time. Nine years later, in therapy, she realized that something had
happened to her family. The event had nothing to do with her, but it stayed
with her from when she was 13. The trauma of the incident had affected her more
deeply than she had thought. Through removing herself from the incident and
viewing it without emotion, she was able to let go of the trauma, and I was able
to see that gradual change in her handwriting as she healed.

And then there are the less dramatic examples that are also
important. I once met a young man who was very bright, and I could tell from
his writing that he looked down on people who were not as intelligent.
Obviously, if I would just tell him that, he’d shut off. I started out by
telling him how I could see that he was really smart, how much he loved
learning and how motivated he was. Once we established that I was not out to
criticize him and that I saw him accurately, I was able to tell him that he had
a huge blind spot for people not quite like him, and he accepted it.

Giving insight into handwriting on TV.

MP: Are there
limits to what you do in your field?

Yaakov: I can be
an insightful friend and a guide, but I am not a mental health professional and
not a parent. There’s a boy who I’ve been seeing for six years. He comes from
an abusive home. More than anything, he just wants to be loved, and he looks
for that love in all the wrong places. I can talk to him and help him understand
why it’s a bad idea to strike up relationships with girls over the Internet,
but at the end of the day, I cannot fill the gap that his family tore into his
soul.

MP: As the world
goes digital, have you seen a major change in graphology? Do you think the
field will survive?

Yaakov: In the
1950s they predicted that the typewriter would mean the demise of graphology.
But it didn’t happen. We still write quite a bit—especially children and teens,
who are still in school.

That said, there are individuals who write so rarely that
their handwriting is not an accurate portrayal of themselves. I knew a guy who
had worked for the New York Times for many years. He had been typing for
decades and doing very little writing, and his handwriting atrophied; it just didn’t
represent him. As of now, most people
are still writing, but time will tell what’ll happen in the long run.

MP: Yaakov, this
has been very educational. Thanks so much for sharing. Do you have any final
thoughts for our readers?

Yaakov: One of
the tools I give the teens is the ability to view the events in their lives as
being part of G‑d’s plan, hashgachah
pratit. The Baal Shem Tov taught that everything we experience can teach us
a lesson. Through looking at challenges as learning opportunities, they are
able to shake themselves loose from whatever trauma may be gripping them and
grow into stronger, healthier and wiser young adults.

Rabbi Menachem Posner serves as staff editor at Chabad.org, the world’s largest Jewish informational website. He has been writing, researching, and editing for Chabad.org since 2006, when he received his rabbinic degree from Central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimin Lubavitch. He resides in Chicago, Ill., with his family.

Graphology or handwriting analysis is the pseudoscientific idea that it is possible to assess someone's personality by analyzing their handwriting.

Claims include making judgments about a person's personality by looking at their handwriting, or even diagnosing disease. One typical claim is that the handwriting of introverts tilts to the left, and that of extroverts tilts to the right. Other claims include that you can detect whether a person is telling the truth by looking for specific indentations in their letters, or whether a person has a romantic interest in you by how large the loops on their "P"s and "R"s are. No scientific studies support any of these claims. Nonetheless, you can find several books purporting to tell you all about the subject in the New Age section of your local bookstore, but then again mentioning this is probably redundant.

While it may be supported by anecdotal evidence and testimonials, no scientifically controlled studies have shown it to be effective
Reply

Shmuel The Lubvitcher teenager BrooklynNovember 19, 2014

OK How
Ok How will they be helped. Who in our system is helping our teens now? How about you?
Reply

Emese OseniToronto, CanadaNovember 19, 2014

Yaakov Rosenthal
Oh I so believe in handwriting analysis. I also studied graphology for a few years. As Yaakov stated, it's not what you write, it's how you write. The formation of your letters, how you put the letters together and the size of the loops on the letters.
Reply